• Blessings in the Midst of Curses: Finding God in Life’s Extremes

    In this week’s Torah portion, Ki Tavo, we read of the great blessings the Jewish people will receive if they listen to God, and the terrible curses the Jewish people will suffer if they do not listen. The Jerusalem Talmud states (Megillah 3:7): “When reading the section of the curses in the Torah, One does…

  • The Justice of Democratic Leadership

    In our parsha, Shoftim, the Torah writes about the legal equality of individuals:   “You shall appoint magistrates and officials for your tribes, in all the settlements that your God is giving you, and they shall govern the people with due justice.  You shall not judge unfairly: you shall show no partiality; you shall not take…

  • The Danger of Partial Judaism

    In this week’s Torah portion, Ekev, Moshe continues his words of strength and warning to the Jewish people to ready them for their  entry into the land and their start as a nation.   In the last verse of last week’s parsha Moshe tells them to guard the, “mitzvot, the chukim and the mishpatim.”  The…

  • Embracing Change and Returning to God

    This week, with Shabbat Nachamu, the Shabbat of Comfort, we read the first of the seven haftorahs of comfort which will link us from this shabbat to Rosh Hashanah.  With this shabbat we transition from the mourning of the three weeks to the process of teshuvah and the Days of Awe. Tisha B’av is the…

  • The Role of Speech in Our Spiritual Journey

    This week’s parsha, Divarim, is always read on the shabbat  before Tisha B’av.    Its title is “Divarim”, “Words”, since it begins:  “These are the words which Moshe spoke…”   After which Moshe commences an almost book length speech.  It is ironic that the Torah ends with a book of words spoken by the law…

  • From Vengeance to Sensitivity

    In this week’s Torah  portion, Matos-Masey, God tells Moshe to attack Midyan in order to avenge their attempt to defeat the Jewish people.  But Moshe does not do it himself, nor does he appoint anyone directly, instead he makes a general call out to the Jewish people telling them to appoint soldiers and take care…

  • Tzelafchad’s Daughters and the Passover Lesson

    In this week’s Torah portion, Pinchas, the Land of Israel is divided by tribes and male heads of families.  The daughters of a man named Tzelafchad, who had a great love for the Land of Israel, come forward and declare:  “Our father died in the wilderness. He was not one of Korah’s faction, which banded…

  • The Parah Adumah and the Sacred Boundary Between Life and Death

    In this week’s parsha we are told of the Parah Adumah, the Red Heifer, an animal which was slaughtered and burned outside the Tabernacle, then its ashes were mixed with water and, perplexingly, when this mixture was sprinkled upon someone who was impure they became pure. What is “tumah,” this impurity which the Torah often…

  • Servant Leadership in the Face of Ego

    In this week’s Torah portion, Moses and Aaron’s cousin Korach and 250 leaders of the Jewish people gather against Moses and Aaron and say, “Its enough for you, for, the whole people are holy and God is in their midst, so why do you lord over the congregation of God?”  In the end Korach and…

  • Investing in Israel: Challenges, Sacrifices, and Hope for the Future

    This week Israel feels a bit like the stock market.   The overall trend is always up, it’s certainly the best investment over time, but in the short term its unpredictable and there sure are ups and downs.  Though I am no expert, this seems to have been an unprecedented year in Israeli politics –…

  • The Dual Call of Leadership

    In this week’s Torah portion, B’ha’aloticha, the Levites are designated to replace the first born as those who will serve in the Tabernacle, as the Torah states:  “Take the Levites from among the Israelites and purify them.  This is what you shall do to them to purify them: sprinkle  the water of purification on them,…

  • Listening, Rebuilding, and Moving Forward Together

    Positive things have happened over the past two years.  Many new people have moved into our community- mostly young but some older, and some who left town during the pandemic for other cities have moved back, realizing they could not find in the bigness of Jewish life in New York what they had in the…

  • Yom Yerushalayim: Gratitude, Humility, and Responsibility

    This past Sunday was Yom Yerushalayim, Jerusalem day, commemorating the day in 1967 that Israeli forces took east Jerusalem and the old city back from Jordanian control. On that day Defense Minister Moshe Dayan declared: ”This morning, the Israel Defense Forces liberated Jerusalem. We have united Jerusalem, the divided capital of Israel. We have returned…

  • The Sefirah

    Time is central to many mitzvot and elements of Jewish life.  We pray at specific times of day, the holidays are called moadim which means “times”, and seasons of year even have specific textures relating to their holidays, such as freedom, introspection, joy, etc.   When we think about what time is though, we are at…

  • Kedoshim 2022

    This past week one of our older congregants, Michael Gelfand, passed away.  He and his wife Edith are long time members of our shul, generous supporters, and are among those, over the years, who have worked very hard as leaders to make Kesher Israel the welcoming, bustling, thoughtful, community that it is.  Michael was buried…

  • Kedoshim 2022

    In this week’s Parsha, Kedoshim, the Torah writes, “Do not go about as a talebearer among your people, and do not stand idly by the blood of your fellow, I am God.” The Talmud (Sanhedrin 73a) states: “From where is it derived that one who sees another drowning in a river, or being dragged away…

  • Passover 2022

    Pesach, which falls this Friday night, commemorates the most important moment in Jewish history.  We have no commandment to remember Sinai, or the day we entered Israel, but we have many which commemorate the Exodus from Egypt because this moment of leaving Egypt and becoming a nation contextualizes who we are as Jews more than…

  • Shabbat Hagadol 2022: Prayer and Diversity

    I am in Israel this week to perform a wedding and, due to jet lag, I had the opportunity to walk very early this morning to Meah Shearim, a very religious neighborhood in Jerusalem, to pray.  Around sunrise I went to the mikvah there and davened Shacharit at one of my favorite places to pray,…

  • Shabbat HaChodesh 2022

    This Shabbat has a special name, Shabbat HaChodesh, on which we read a maftir from Parshat Bo which contains the first commandment given to the Jewish people as a nation just before they leave Egypt: “Hachodesh hazeh lachem,” “This month (of Nisan) shall be to you the first of months.”    The first Rashi on the…

  • Lessons from Ezekiel and the Israeli Redemption

    The haftorah of Parshat Parah this week tells us that the exile of the Jewish people is a desecration of God’s name, a Chilul Hashem:  “I scattered them among the nations, and they were dispersed through the countries, I punished them in accordance with their ways and their deeds.  But when they came they caused…